Various recent devices (storage devices; hereinafter referred to as devices) connected to a PC to form a network contain CPUs and have software (hereinafter referred to as “firmware”) installed therein to control a system composed of the devices. For example, as described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-94531, the devices acquire own device IDs for the network and further acquire the IDs of the other devices connected to the network to form a device information list for management on the network.
With the recent complicated devices, defects have been found in firmware in the devices shipped as products and problems have resulted from connections to PCs conforming to new standards. This in turn has complicated operational environments surrounding the devices.
However, when an end user has already been using the device, every time the device malfunctions and requires analysis and recovery from the problem, an engineer needs to visit the site in which the system environment is located to check the end user's system or the end user's whole system environment needs to be sent to the analysis support engineer. Furthermore, when a problem occurs, the problem may not immediately be solved at the site and appropriate measures may be taken at a later date. Moreover, the problem having occurred in the end user's environment may disappear after the system has been sent to the support engineer or before the support engineer visits the site.
Thus, an object of the present invention is to provide a remote monitor/recovery system for a device which can analyze and recover from a problem occurring in the end user's device via a network such as the Internet even when the support side environment is located away from the end user's environment.